Almost daily, more evidence surfaces that Canada’s government is guided by tribalists averse to scientific reason in favour of Biblical fundamentalism — or what some call “evangelical religious skepticism.”

The article is two years old, but that means only that Stephen Harper and Co have had two more years to do more of the same. The twist is, they are doing an excellent job of serving God and Mammon at the same time, like Jesus in a business suit setting up shop in the temple. The fact that I voted for somebody else is cold comfort indeed.

4 comments

I run across this all the time with Americans—mostly—saying they want to move to Canada. They have this image of a tolerant, laid back hockey and beer mad country with a great health-care system. But Canada gets such limited coverage outside of Canada most don’t know where this guy Harper is coming from and the damage he’s done to our international image. I recall Jonathon Pearce on here was shocked when I explained Harper’s Dominionist fundie leanings and his sect believes we’re in the End Times. When Jesus returns he’ll clean up everything which helps explain Harper’s dismal environmental inaction. I’m in a quandary, though. I think Elizabeth May is the best, most informed member in the House but a vote for Green is likely a wasted vote. A lifetime Liberal I don’t think the Boy is ready, if not over his head with some of his inexplicable decisions rulings. I have reservations about Mulcair, too. Probably the best solution for progressive legislation is a Liberal minority with NDP support. It worked well in the 60s with Pearson’s minority governments. Interesting days ahead.

I’m in a similar quandary. The Greens do nothing but split the vote. I’ve been a fairly consistent NDP voter, and actually live in an NDP riding at the moment, but our boundaries have been artfully changed, and our MP is retiring anyway. Thus, we’re no longer a slam-dunk for the NDP. Unless Proportional Representation is miraculously bestowed upon us, which would take an Act of (er) God at this point,I see our only hope is (as you say) the Libs and NDP getting into bed together. I’m even prepared to do a tactical vote for the Boy!

I live in the same province as Rebecca, but in a part where the conservative party, i.e. BC Liberals (conservatives in all but name)
or the PC can put up a stick with the parties name and it would get elected.

I tend towards the NDP as well, but it is a mistake to think their present role as leader of the oppsosition is based on anything other than disgust by Quebec voters with the representation they had in the past.
In another election I am willing to bet Mulcair will be third again, so I think it is strategically important to vote Liberal to get rid of the fundie bunch that seems to promote Canada as an arm of the US government (the bad parts) and in lockstep with the teaparty .

I’m trending that way myself, watching with keen interest to see how Pierre’s boy does. Mulcair seems pretty solid most of the time, but I also think the NDP’s relative success in the last election was at the Bloc’s expense, and a fluke. I’m just worried that anti-PC voters voting tactically will end up cancelling each other out – unless the Libs and NDP actually sit down together and work out a joint strategy. Myself, I’d almost be happier to have the Rhino Party in power than give St. Stephen yet another mandate to eviscerate us.

About Rebecca

A natural-born atheist with a fundamentalist Christian background, I have spent sixty years so far trying to decide what to be when I grow up. Meantime, I’ve kept myself busy earning a PhD in Archaeology from Cambridge, and working variously as an archaeologist in Egypt and the Sudan, a housewife and mother in Northern Ireland, a technical editor in Kuwait, a desktop publisher and part-time life model in Hong Kong, and a university sessional lecturer in Calgary and Berlin.
At intervals through all this, I have published four novels and numerous short stories - mostly fantasy and horror, but also including a collection of Biblical riffs, from which this blog takes its name. Recently, I returned to my roots in Western Canada, combining writing with raising chickens and vegetables on an acreage in the Kootenays, supervised by many cats.